Former KU center Joel Embiid has misgivings regarding reboot of NBA season
Former University of Kansas center Joel Embiid on Tuesday expressed concerns about the NBA’s decision to resume the 2019-20 season at the end of this month at Disney World in Florida.
“Oh yeah,” Embiid, the Philadelphia 76ers’ 26-year-old three-time All-Star, said Tuesday when asked by reporters if he had “any fears going to Orlando.”
“I am not a big fan of the idea (22-team reboot of season), but then again, I am going to do my job,” Embiid added, as quoted by the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I am not going to let the city down.”
The 7-foot, 280-pound Cameroon native said despite his concerns about playing basketball during the COVID-19 pandemic, he will report for duty Thursday when the Sixers arrive for training camp in Florida.
“The mindset doesn’t change. It doesn’t matter the fact that I don’t like that idea and I still don’t believe in it (and) I don’t think it’s going to be safe enough,” Embiid said.
He’s dismissed thoughts of personal safety so as to “not let my teammates down.”
”I play in a city that’s tough and I consider myself as being tough … I’m not going to give up that easily. If you told me that the current trend is that people are getting sick and a lot of people are dying, obviously you don’t know what’s going to happen and you don’t want to be in a situation where you put your life at risk and all that stuff, just for what? The money and all that stuff. At the end of the day, basketball is not all that matters. I’ve got family, I’ve got myself to look out for. That’s all I care about,” Embiid said as quoted by CBSsports.com.
He added: “At the end, when it’s all said and done, basketball shouldn’t define me. I should be looked at as just Joel Embiid the person. Like I said, it’s unfortunate but I want to represent my city. I’ve been here too long. This is my opportunity. I believe we have a great chance of winning the championship. I’ve been working too hard for this and I’ve just got to keep pushing and hope for the best.”
Embiid is not confident players will be safe in the Orlando “bubble” despite guidelines that include daily testing for the virus. If a player does test positive, he will have to be isolated from the team until testing negative twice in a row.
“I know I’m going to do the right things, I know I don’t ever do anything ... I only play video games, I’m always home — I don’t do anything,” Embiid said in the CBSsports.com article. “But then again, I don’t trust those other guys to do the same. But, like I said, I’ve got to do my job.”
He might express relief if commissioner Adam Silver changed his mind and scrapped the idea of the reboot.
“I hated the idea,” Embiid said of the moment he first learned of the planned continuation of the season. “I feel like with everything that has been going on, it’s unfortunate what’s been going on in the world. Obviously people look at it in a different way. There might be some other reasons behind everything going on. To me, that part never mattered. To me, all I want is to stay healthy and stay safe, keep the people around me safe. I want to make sure I’m able to live for a long time and not have any sort of consequences in the future from this if I were to be in a situation where I was getting the virus.”
Embiid, who was selected third overall in the 2014 NBA Draft by Philly, averages 23.4 points and 11.8 rebounds for a team that went 39-26 before the stoppage of play March 12.
He said he’s in good physical condition, totally healed after suffering a shoulder injury that kept him out of five games in early March.
“I don’t think my weight is an issue,” Embiid said in the Inquirer. “I am fine. “I know what I have to do. I have to keep the same mindset and try to go for that championship.”
Sixers coach Brett Brown said Embiid has been working hard on conditioning the past many weeks.
“Let’s start with the respect and applause I give him for putting in time,” Brown told the Inquirer. “There is nobody on our team that has put in more time than Joel Embiid. Forget what he has actually done in the gym for a minute. Just go to the man-hours and consecutive days and the amount of days he has put in over the past few months. I’m looking for Joel to come in in as good a shape as he’s been since I have coached him. I’m excited for Jo to get back into this and show what he has been doing the last few months.”
Pierce likes Celtics’ chances
Former KU forward Paul Pierce likes one team’s chances above the rest entering the reboot of the NBA season.
“Boston poses the best threat,” former Celtics phenom Pierce said of his former team in a post on Twitter. “Not because I played for Boston. You look at their roster … Jayson Tatum started playing like a superstar before the work stoppage and in my opinion Boston (43-21 record) has the best starting five in the NBA.”
The Celtics start Kemba Walker and Marcus Smart at guard, Gordon Hayward and Tatum at forward and Daniel Theis at center.
Pierce back in March revealed his all-time Kansas team. His squad: Pierce, Embiid, Mario Chalmers, Danny Manning and Wilt Chamberlain.
“I’m going to go big with my squad,” Pierce said on Twitter. “We’re going old school 6-foot-8 and up pretty much. I’m going to start off with Wilt Chamberlain. I’m going to put him down low next to Joel Embiid. Then at the wing it’s going to be Danny Manning. Got to have him. He was a great Kansas player. I’m going to put myself at the other wing. And what Kansas team … you can’t leave off Mario Chalmers. Super Mario won a national championship at Kansas (with) big shots. I’m going to go with Mario Chalmers.”
This story was originally published July 8, 2020 at 10:08 AM with the headline "Former KU center Joel Embiid has misgivings regarding reboot of NBA season."
